Saturday, March 1, 2014

For years I have been trying to figure out who was my GGG'grandmother, Ruth Kirby Evans. According to church records, she died on 21 March 1844 in Sherman Connecticut at age 63. My grandmother, Marion Evans Dakin's notes on her family tree says her great grandmother was Ruth Kirby, born either in "Dover, New York or Canada" and married Jonathan Evans.

According to the Beekman Patent book (vol. 1, page 817), Jonathan was the son of John Evans of Dover, Dutchess County, NY. By 1800, Jonathan and Ruth are married (probably in Dover) and have a baby, Lydia. Soon they move over the border to Sherman, Connecticut to a house they built on Evans Hill Rd, and lived in the rest of their lives [Sherman SENTINEL, 16 October 1868 story on the oldest houses in town], and raised their nine children. This old house, even after over 213 years, has been owned by only two families: first Evans and now Mosenthal.

The EVANS family house on Evans Hill Road in Sherman CT
with Charles Evans and Elizabeth Radford Evans
(son and and daughter-in-law of Jonathan Evans and Ruth Kirby Evans).

Born "in Canada" is a bit broad for searching. So, for years, I've been looking in the Dover NY neighborhood for a KIRBY family for my Ruth. There were two KIRBY families in Pawling NY in the 1790 census, George and William. She died in 1844 at age 63, so in 1790 she would have been about age 9. Each had white females and so are possible families. BUT, then I found the Beekman Patent Book (VII, 575-579) has no mention of any Kirby family with a daughter named Ruth born about 1781, including George's and William's families. This doesn't seem too promising.

So I got to searching recently, wondered if maybe she had been born over the border in Connecticut. I found a Mrs. Ruth Kirby who died in Litchfield CT, maybe that was my Ruth Kirby's mother and she was named for her mother? Worth a look. I was looking a bit closer on GenealogyBank -- a source of old newspapers.

I found widow Ruth Kirby, with neighbors concerned about her and holding a "woodspell" -- a term I had not heard before but clearly a "wood supply" help-your-neighbors-event:

I guess Ruth Kirby, upon reading the newspaper could sympathize with a future Mark Twain who sent an 1897 note to London reporter Frank Marshall White, "The report of my illness grew of his [cousin's] illness; the report of my death was an exaggeration." [en.wikiquote/wiki/Mark_Twain]

The Ephraim Kirby family was in the 1800 census in Litchfield CT but Ephraim had died by the 1810 census. Searching for any evidence of their children on Ancestry.com, I did find a few people who have put up trees for this KIRBY family, they have no daughter Ruth born any time near 1781. More recently on Americanancestors.com, I did find the marriage of Ephraim Kirby and Ruth Marvin on 17 March 1784 in Litchfield, CT -- unfortunately that is 4 years after MY Ruth Kirby was supposedly born.

Anyone in Canada have a KIRBY family with a daughter named Ruth born about 1781?

EVANS/MOSENTHAL family house in September 2012
(various additions over the years)

About Erica

Welcome to my blog on my adventures as I try to figure out my family's history. Over the years I've had some amazing adventures and met some wonderful people along the way. I keep looking for the stories behind the people (along with those names and dates) and I keep trying to find those women who weren't well documented in the past. I hope you'll enjoy what I post and if you want to contact me, send a note voolich@gmail.com.